Policy Issues | EDUCAUSE

While ELI continues to be engaged in policy issues related to teaching, learning, and technology, this page is an historical resource that reflects NLII's past policy agenda. It is not being updated or actively managed.

Importance of Policy Issues

One of the NLII's goals is to articulate those public and institutional policy issues that inhibit the creation of a national learning infrastructure. In close cooperation and coordination with the EDUCAUSE policy office, and with the help of member volunteers, NLII staff monitor a wide range of issues involving federal policies that impact the implementation and use of information technology in higher education. The NLII concentrates in particular on those policies that would advance or impede the transformation of higher education into education that is active and learner-centered, dynamic and lifelong, collaborative, cost-effective, high quality, and accessible, and the development and use of technology that would enable this.

NLII Research and Analysis Questions

As work is done on other NLII key themes (for example, electronic portfolios), specific research and analysis questions with regard to policy issues and each key theme are identified and researched, and associated recommendations are developed (at both the institutional and the federal levels).

NLII Projects and Activities

NLII staff are working with Garret Sern in the D.C. office and several NLII member volunteers to develop a specific policy agenda for the NLII that will concentrate on four key issues.

Policy Area	Contacts	Work Product/Schedule
Intellectual property ownership in distributed learning	Vicki Suter, Director of NLII Projects and Programs; and Sara Ulius, an EDUCAUSE intern and student at the University of Michigan	White paper, "An Ounce of Prevention: Establishing Policies for Copyright Ownership in Distributed Learning," Summer 2003
Learning objects and policy issues	Patricia McGee (pmcgee@educause.edu), NLII 2003 Fellow; and Veronica Diaz, doctoral student at the University of Arizona	Article, "Objects for Learning: The Next Digital Frontier," Summer 2003
Assessment and accountability issues	Vicki Suter	Article, Fall 2003
Electronic portfolios	Darren Cambridge (dcambridge@educause.edu)	White paper, January 2004

Resources and Readings

General Online Resources

"Citizen Campus," 2003 NLII Annual Review.

EDUCAUSE Federal Policy Initiatives.

EduTools, Description: a Web-based resource for the higher education community, developed through a partnership of British Columbia's Centre for Curriculum, Technology, and Transfer (C2T2) and the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications. The Web site "focuses on the unique policy issues that are created by the e-delivery of higher education courses and programs," in the areas of funding, intellectual property, quality assurance, transfer and articulation, and tuition and fees.

Digital Copyright and Digital Rights Management

Sern, Garret. (2003). "Digital Rights Management: Whose Rights Are We Protecting?" Presentation at NLII 2003 Annual Meeting.

"Citizen Campus: Higher Education Gets Serious about Digital Rights Management." NLII 2003 Annual Review /ir/library/pdf/NLI0364.pdf article, p. 34.

Policy Issues Brief/ir/library/pdf/NET0303.pdf on Digital Copyright.

Intellectual Property & Distributed Education

For links to various college and university copyright ownership policies, see the CopyOwn Web site.

Stein, Sarah. (2001). "The Media Production Model: An Alternative Approach to Intellectual Property Rights in Distributed Education," /ir/library/pdf/ERM0111.pdf EDUCAUSE Review, 36 (1). Description: This article discusses a team-based approach to intellectual property ownership and compensation that offers a model for slowing the departure of creative technical professionals from campuses, encouraging more faculty members to explore distributed learning, and conducting copyright negotiations.

Twigg, C. (2000). " Who Owns Online Courses and Course Materials: Intellectual Property Policies for a New Learning Environment," The Pew Learning and Technology Program, Center for Academic Transformation, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.